Young Adult

Parèanka
“There weren’t always dragons in the valley” explained gwandhou in our first history class while making a mysterious face and getting close to caught the attention of a few children in the back of the group that weren’t paying attention.
By Ricardo Acosta 4 years ago in Fiction
Chickens
Playing truant was always appealing. Always. Two nine-year olds deep into their school days would always know better than what adults told them. Your years in school were not the best days of your life, and you don’t need to attend classes to get clever to get good jobs. They knew it all, so didn’t need to bother attending, and why do maths lessons and cross-country runs when it was much more appealing to play on railways?
By John Jones4 years ago in Fiction
Tales from Coldharbour
There weren’t always Dragons in the valley. Their steel-rimmed boots kicked up dust with every step, thin wispy tendrils of debris floating haphazardly in the air to announce their presence. Their aura was one of authority and intimidation, demanding the attention of all near and far. Their eyes were like daggers, a single glance enough to make one shrink and squirm under their visage. But most of all, those red-silver cloaks bellowed behind their uniformed bodies, like embers and flames rising up to overtake charred silk.
By Gabriel O4 years ago in Fiction
The Lord of Dragons
“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.” A haggard old man swayed in his seat, consumed by alcohol and memories. Droplets of spilled beer glistened in his long beard like stars twinkling against the backdrop of a darkened sky.
By Luxe Aeterna4 years ago in Fiction
Khione
CHAPTER 1 There weren't always dragons in the Valley. They came between the second and third quarter of the hour. Between a bowl of soup and the sound of my mothers voice on the front porch. Amari was sitting at our table and I was looking at him. I remember how the morning light painted his skin gold. His hand crept into the bread basket, and his smirk followed. Between one mouthful and the next the floor pitched forward. The silverware upturned. My fathers favorite mug hit the floor. The ground rushed up to smack our faces.
By Rina P.4 years ago in Fiction
The Dragon's Death
There weren’t always dragons in the valley. They’d been driven here, years ago, as people moved into the areas opposite the mountains. Their cats and pigs let loose hunted for dragon eggs, and the huge rats that stalked cities stalked dragon nests as well. Their numbers dwindled, and survivors from all over fled into the valley, turning it into a cutthroat land of mismatched species.
By Brandy Vokey4 years ago in Fiction
Rider Academy
There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Brianna didn’t remember it, but her grandmother told stories about that before-time, before the dragon-rider school came to Salt Lake City. It was hard to credit but Nana’s stories always focused on how much better she thought life was before the dragons came. Brianna just figured it was sour grapes because Nana wasn’t chosen as a rider and her best friend was. Not that Nana ever told that story. Brianna figured it out herself when she was flipping through Nana’s old high school yearbook, class of 2023. Right there on the inside front cover, surrounded by a huge heart someone had drawn, was an epic message signed by Mikaylagh Williamson, the Mikaylagh Williamson. It was all about how great it had been to share her senior year with Brianna’s grandmother and how much fun they were going to have over the summer before they started college together at the U. She even signed off with, “Hugs and kisses to my BFF (Best Friend Five-Ever!),” how epic was that!?
By Nichole Bonham4 years ago in Fiction
Stripes and Scales - Chapter I: "The Street and the Pool"
There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Long before she had been old enough to grasp the concept, she had heard the adults speak, in whispers, about the beasts. They whispered, as their parents and their parents before them, had once shouted, because the years had worn them down, left them able to do little more than raise their crops and their children, debate and plan their communities, and always, prepare themselves for war against their enemies, be they human or reptilian. What fabulous enemies they made, these legends of the air and the water and the very bowels of their Kingdom-earth, how magnificent!
By Eric Wolf4 years ago in Fiction
A Valley On Fire
There weren’t always dragons in the valley. We think they didn’t want to come down, or didn’t have a reason to before now. They kept to the lava tubes and volcanic middles of the earth, and we kept to our tidy little cities filled with parking garages and late-night pharmacies and car-lined avenues running up and down the valley like fat, glittering veins.
By Becca Lee4 years ago in Fiction
Between Fire and Nightmares
There weren’t always dragons in the valley. But that didn't stop me from falling in love with one. 6 months earlier I was at home preparing dinner, attempting to tune out my brother, and contemplating the best way to extricate myself from this situation without another blow-up. Our sisters had just gotten home from their lessons and Ash was pestering me again about how I was wasting my potential. Like every other day.
By McKenzie B. Carter4 years ago in Fiction
The Last Mage
There weren't always dragons in the valley. Then again, there wasn't always Calliope Fogg. Now, when dealing with the tale of Calliope Fogg, I find it's always best to start not from the beginning, but nearly. The unusual girl appeared on my doorstep on the eve of Rendreley's midsummer festival with a scrawny human boy in tow. A funny looking thing, he was. Glasses so thick his eyeballs looked three sizes too big for his head and cinnamon colored hair that stood in every direction but flat. I could tell his origins immediately by his overwhelming stench, like raw onions and day old fish. They arrived before the sun had time to crest the horizon, looking bedraggled and filthy from their nobs to their toenails, several of which were poking out of their tattered shoes. Calliope's wildly unruly mane could have been harboring a mischief of rats for all I could tell and their garments were worn so thin a more modest woman would have blushed at the sight of them. Had I not been expecting her – for quite some time, I might add – I would have shooed them away without a second thought. Granted, the boy was an unexpected addition but one look into Calliope's steady gaze told me all I needed to know; the two were a package deal and I would hear the story soon enough. As it were, I ushered them in and immediately set to cleaning them up and feeding their growling bellies. Thank heavens, I even had a tonic to cloak the human's smell. It was hardly the poor boys fault after all.
By K. Wallace4 years ago in Fiction
Valley of the Sun
There weren't always Dragons in the Valley. There are few today who were alive during the Awakening, and even fewer still old enough to remember what really happened. The stories they tell have minor discrepancies; What caused the Dragons to arise, where they first began their War of Human Extermination, how many Dragons are left. Each remaining settlement, every band of human remaining tells the same beginning: It has been nearly one hundred years since the Earth split open, and Humanity's grim obsession with fighting monsters finally came to fruition. The epicenter of this catastrophe was called "The Valley of the Sun." A dry, hot, miserable place that housed one of the most populous cities in the country. Over eight million people spread across this vast basin. Their homes kept cool all summer long with electricity powered by a hydroelectric plant a hundred miles away, every lawn a lush, verdant green thanks to water siphoned from every available well and mountain spring. Water was even trucked in to maintain this illogical and farcical city. Yet it thrived. Several of the largest universities were in this place, globally recognized restaurants were filled every night, and there was no shortage of museums and cultural centers.
By Maxie Ray4 years ago in Fiction